Former Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said he will leave the country’s newest opposition party and signaled he would be willing to join Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s Cabinet.
Yosano said he resigned from the Sunrise Party, which he formed in April. Kan tomorrow will replace Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku with Yukio Edano and Yosano may join the Cabinet as a special minister in charge of tax reform, the Asahi newspaper said today, without citing anyone.
“Prime Minister Kan is pursuing fiscal restructuring, drastic tax reform and securing the social welfare system,” Yosano, 72, said at a press conference today in Tokyo. “These are issues Japan can’t afford to avoid. I’m ready to offer a helping hand.”
Kan said at a convention of his Democratic Party of Japan that he will reshuffle his cabinet and the party leadership after today’s gathering.
“I want to establish the strongest regime ahead of the parliament session,” he told party members meeting in Chiba city, southeast of Tokyo.
Kan, whose popularity has fallen by two-thirds since taking office in June, is gearing up for a national debate on raising the 5 percent consumption tax to cope with rising social welfare costs and the world’s largest public debt. Yosano advocated raising the sales levy in his failed 2008 race to lead Liberal Democratic Party, which he left last year.
‘Experienced Adviser’
“With Sengoku leaving the Cabinet, Kan wants an experienced adviser nearby,” said Minoru Morita, a Tokyo-based independent political commentator. “Yosano will become his counselor and instruct him on fiscal consolidation.”
Kan is under pressure to shuffle his Cabinet after two ministers, including Sengoku, were censured in November in the Upper House of parliament, which isn’t controlled by the DPJ. He needs opposition support to ease passage of his record 92.4 trillion yen ($1.1 trillion) budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1.
While Yosano said he hadn’t heard from Kan’s office, he added that “I will consider things” if contacted.
Kan’s wife, Nobuko, told reporters yesterday her husband is trying “by any means” to rebuild the country’s social welfare system as the population ages. Social-security costs have increased 60 percent since 2000 and will account for 53 percent of government spending next year.
Falling Ratings
Kan’s approval rating fell to 21 percent in an Asahi newspaper survey published Dec. 13, from 60 percent in June. Kan on Nov. 27 said he wouldn’t quit even if his rating falls to 1 percent, the Asahi reported.
Campaigning for the LDP’s party leadership in 2008, Yosano pledged to increase Japan’s consumption tax and balance the budget by 2011. He finished second on the ballot, losing to Taro Aso, who became premier and led the party to its historic defeat.
Before the DPJ-led government came to power in 2009, Yosano criticized the party’s fiscal policies, arguing it would need to raise the sales tax to 25 percent to honor its pledges to lower corporate and gas taxes as well as supporting families with children with payments and eliminating highway tolls. The DPJ has since pared some of those promises due to budget constraints.
He had also said it was a “tragedy” former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama was avoiding attempts to reduce the debt.
Yosano, formed the Sunrise Party with five former legislators from the LDP, which governed Japan for more than five decades of almost unbroken rule until September 2009. He served as LDP finance minister, economy and fiscal policy minister and chief cabinet secretary.
To contact the reporters on this story: Sachiko Sakamaki in Tokyo at Ssakamaki1@bloomberg.net; Takashi Hirokawa in Tokyo at thirokawa@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg in Hong Kong at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
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